Sono Yami no Kokudo
by Miriku-'-'-Yami no Hikari
Summary: [Crossover, YWxYGO][Between books three and four] Nita and Kit botch a transportation spelland find themselves in another dimension. Can they help the King of Games and his friends, and return home in one piece? NitaxKit


**(sweatdrops) 'Kay, random idea here. I am now ready to be yelled at...**

**Disclaimer:** Diane Duane-sama owns the Young Wizards series. Kazuki Takashi-sama owns YuGiOh. I own the plot. Are we all happy now?

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**The Shadows**

Laughter filled their ears. Mocking laughter. They began to falter, thrown off cadence by the cold, penetrating voice—

And, suddenly, they were thrown down in the middle of swirling purple-blackness. They lay there for a while, stunned.

Nita Callahan was the first to recover. She groaned, sitting up. "Nng…I feel like I just got hit by a semi…"

"Make that _two_ of them," her partner, Kit Rodriguez, added, pushing himself into a sitting position. "Where the heck _are_ we?"

"I don't know," Nita said softly, looking around at the incessantly seething darkness. This place chilled her to the marrow. It was made entirely of darkness—they were sitting on something solid, but there was no discernable difference from the ground and the sky. "Something went wrong with the spell—I know that much. I think it was…you know…"

"Oh." Kit's face took on a look of intense concentration, and he began to murmur under his breath. A slight glow began to surround him—

"Kit!" Nita gasped, grabbing his arm. She had felt something watching them, stirring into awareness as he began the spell—something that was decidedly malevolent. It slipped back into dormancy as he ground to a halt.

Kit glared at her. "Neets! I could have had us out of here!"

"There's something out there," Nita hissed, gesturing in the general direction she'd felt the—whatever it was. "Besides, to use that spell, you've also got to know where you _are._"

"Uh…good point."

The hairs were prickling on the back of Nita's neck. She didn't like this place. Not one bit.

And that feeling was only reinforced when a thin, broken wail reached her ears.

Kit stiffened, and glanced at her. "Do you hear that?"

Nita grimaced. "It's kind of hard not to."

The wail went on for a minute or so, finally ending in a broken sob. It was rather quiet afterwards, except for a few smaller sobs.

Kit glanced at Nita. "You don't think we ended up in someone's inner universe, do you?"

Nita shrugged, a bit uncomfortably. "It's possible…"

Kit grimaced. "Only one way to find out, I guess."

Nita made a face at him. "Somehow, I have the feeling we're going to regret this." The two of them began to creep towards the sobbing.

It was impossible to tell time in this strange place—both of their watches had frozen, and apparently at the exact same moment. The seething masses also messed with their depth perception and sense of direction—their only comfort was that the surface they walked on was flat and featureless.

The sobbing slowly died away—but by the time it had died completely, Nita and Kit had already spotted the culprit. A boy sat ahead of them, knees tucked up under his chin, arms rested over his face. He couldn't have been more than four foot six. He was wearing a black tank top and form-fitting jeans. But most eye-catching was his hair—it was three different colors, and completely defied gravity. The lightning-shaped bangs protruding from behind his arms were goldenrod, and the rest of his hair fanned out like a sunburst—black, edged with magenta.

"He must be _really_ upset," Kit whispered. "So much darkness…"

Suddenly, the boy's head shot up, revealing amethyst eyes. Despite already being huge, they widened considerably. What had been despair faded into shock. He exclaimed something in a different language, and then— "Who are you two!" he demanded sharply, in English. Nita blinked; he looked and sounded so young, but there was something about him that made him seem older…

And she also sensed something else; some deep, soul-searing darkness that was, in fact, light…

Kit raised his hands. "Hold your horses, we're not going to hurt you."

The boy's eyes narrowed. "I can't trust you. This is, after all, the Yami no Kokudo–the Shadow Realm." His voice was faintly scornful.

Nita raised her eyebrows "Shadow Realm, hunh? No wonder the place is so gloom and doom."

The boy clenched his fists. "This is no joke!" he yelled, anger filling his eyes and voice. "This is a dangerous place! It's all too possible to be trapped here forever! And _then_ try laughing, when the shadows are tearing you apart!"

Kit raised his eyebrows. "If it's so dangerous," he said dryly, "then why are _you_ here?"

The boy gawked at him for a moment. "That's no business of yours!"

Nita saw pain flash through his eyes. She glanced at Kit. **_Let's not push it. There's something about this place that makes him bitter…_**

**_Right._** "Hey, sorry—we're just a little nervous here. We didn't even mean to get here. My name's Kit, by the way—Kit Rodriguez. This is Nita Callahan."

The boy nodded. "Mu—Yuugi. Yuugi Mutou." He blinked. "I forgot that surname comes last for you…" He looked away for a second. "And before you make any comments about age and height, I _am_ fourteen."

**_He's also Japanese,_** Nita commented.

Yuugi looked back up at them. "You said you didn't mean to get here. How? Usually, the only way to get to the Shadow Realm is on purpose." His face darkened. "Or if you were banished."

Kit and Nita exchanged glances. **_Should we tell him?_** Kit asked.

**_I…maybe. I can feel magic in him—enough for him to be a Junior, at least. And even then, having passed through one hell of an Ordeal, and about to graduate to Senior._**

**_But he's not a wizard?_** Kit was perplexed.

_**Not our kind of wizard, at any rate.**_

Kit sighed. "Well, we were trying to use our transportation spell, and—"

Yuugi blinked. "Spell?"

Nita sighed. "This'll sound crazy. We're wizards—Junior level wizards."

The expected gawking never came. Yuugi just smiled a bitter smile. "I've heard crazier—and had it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt."

"If you heard our story, whatever you've seen would probably pale next to it," Kit remarked, sitting down. Nita did the same.

Yuugi raised an eyebrow. "Really? What's happened to you two?"

"It's a long story," Nita warned.

"I have time."

So Kit and Nita began to tell their story—everything that had happened to them. Their individual introductions to wizardry; how they had met; their Ordeal; and everything that had happened since then, up until their latest adventure with Dairine's Ordeal.

And then Yuugi began to tell them _his_ story.

Kit was wrong. It was _their_ story that almost paled in comparison.

Yuugi's tale was also of an ancient battle of Darkness and Light. Ancient Egyptian myths; Duel Monsters; Shadow Games; dictators bent on taking over the world. All focusing around seven mystical artifacts—Sennen, or Millennium, Items—from the ancient past, and a pharaoh destined to once more lock them away.

"This realm was created by the dark lord Zorc Necrophades," Yuugi explained when Nita asked. "It was made solely to envelop our world after his takeover."

**_This Zorc character reminds me of someone,_** Kit muttered dryly.

_**If you're thinking of who I'm thinking of, then I think you're right.**_

Nita turned to Yuugi, gears grinding in her mind. The End Game he had talked about had pitted him against the pharaoh, Atem—also, rather fondly, dubbed 'Mou Hitori no Boku', which meant 'The Other Me', and 'Yami', which just meant 'Dark'. He sounded regretful that he had won. "You seem to miss Atem a lot, but the way you put it, you were only friends." Her brow furrowed. "In fact—you're two separate people. If he was inside Shadow Games—or that Ore-whatever thing you mentioned—how would you reach him? How would he know what happened to you or your friends?"

Yuugi closed his eyes. Pain flashed across his face. "Remember I mentioned Bakura Ryou?"

Kit nodded. "He had the Millennium Ring, and was also possessed by the homicidal tomb raider that had it in for your pharaonic buddy."

Yuugi and Nita made a face at him. "Did you _have_ to put it so bluntly?" they asked at the same time.

Yuugi's expression became grave again—and sad. "I named him Mou Hitori no Boku for a reason," he said softly. "He had been imprisoned inside the Sennen Puzzle, like I told you—but when I released him, he became part of my soul, just as Yami no Bakura was part of Ryou's. We are called hikaris for a reason; we are the lighter half of a darker soul. Neither of us is complete without the other."

Kit blinked. Realization dawned on his face. "Wait…so if he's gone now, then that means…"

"Half of my soul has disappeared," Yuugi finished.

"Almost like when wizardry leaves the unwilling heart," Nita whispered. "It leaves a sort of aching sadness, but you never know why, because when the magic leaves, so do all the memories…"

"But in this case, the memories don't leave."

Kit thought for a moment. "So you've pretty much sealed yourself here in the Shadow Realm, mourning your loss. You've shut yourself away from the people who might be able to make you feel better."

"_Kit!_" Nita exclaimed exasperatedly, elbowing him hard in the ribs. She looked worriedly at Yuugi. The small teen sat silently, head bowed. "He doesn't know what it's like," he murmured. "To lose half of yourself. To be the one who banished that half of yourself."

Suddenly, a huge wave of blind rage rushed over Nita, nearly knocking her off her feet. She immediately recognized it as the malevolent presence from before. And judging by the shocked expressions on their faces, Kit and Yuugi had also felt it.

"I think we'd better get the heck out of here," Yuugi said quickly, rising to his feet. Nita and Kit did the same.

"Wait…!"

The voice rasped at them from the shadows, obviously male. There was a hint of ringing baritone in its depths.

Yuugi froze. His eyes widened.

A figure limped towards them. He was practically doubled over, and was panting audibly. "Yuugi…!"

As he came into focus, Nita and Kit couldn't help but gawk. This person looked almost exactly like Yuugi. He was about two inches taller, and his eyes were angular and bold crimson. He also had a few sections of his bangs that traced back along the crests of his hair. And around his neck on a thick chain was an inverted pyramid made of gold. A strange eye symbol was engraved on the front.

His eyes, half-lidded in pain and exhaustion, were focused on Yuugi. "Aibou…fujo…"

And he collapsed.

Kit stared at Yuugi. "Who the heck is—?"

"Mou Hitori no Boku!" Yuugi whispered, shock in his voice. He dropped to his knees next to the unconscious teen. "Yami…!

Nita glanced over her shoulder. The menacing _thing_ was approaching—fast. "We can discuss this later—I'd rather not become mincemeat for whatever's chasing him!"

Yuugi nodded, and closed his eyes, touching two fingers to the eye symbol on the artifact around the pharaoh's neck. A look of intense concentration crossed his face. The darkness began to swirl in a slow vortex about them.

It was moving faster. Nita could feel its anger. It wasn't going to let its prey escape. They weren't going to get away in time.

Or maybe they were. The vortex was speeding up. The wind generated by the spinning whipped their hair all over. Nita found herself wondering vacantly how Yuugi's and the pharaoh's hair were staying in their ornate arrangements.

And then—

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**I'm evil for ending the chapter like that. I know.**


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